Handley sent to Mountain View

Saturday

May 31, 2008 at 12:01 AM

By Andy PowellTimes Staff Writer

Etowah County veterinarian Jerry Handley was released on bond Friday afternoon from the county jail and was taken by sheriff’s deputies to a mental health treatment facility as ordered by District Judge William Russell.Russell had ruled Friday against lowering Handley’s $100,000 bond. Handley is charged with arson and cruelty to animals in connection with a fire he allegedly set at his clinic April 24.In his bond ruling, Russell included provisions that Handley seek medical treatment if released on bond and placed limitations on travel. He said Handley should not have a gun or knife in his possession.Handley was taken to Mountain View Hospital, Sheriff Todd Entrekin said.Russell made the ruling after a hearing Friday morning on a motion by Handley’s attorney, Eddy Cunningham, for Handley’s bond to be lowered.Handley was charged Wed-nesday with second-degree arson, seven felony counts of animal cruelty and filing a false report to law enforcement officials, which is a misdemeanor. Two dogs and five cats died in the fire.Entrekin said Handley’s release was secured by a cash bond provided by a local bonding company rather than a property bond.The bond amount had been set by Circuit Judge David Kimberley when a district judge was not available to hear the bond request.Handley confessed to setting fire April 24 to his animal clinic on U.S. Highway 411, shooting himself and making up a story that he had been surprised by burglars, Entrekin said.Entrekin said this week that Handley admitted staging the burglary and pouring gasoline throughout Handley Animal Clinic near the Etowah and Cherokee county lines. Handley did not give investigators a motive.At the hearing, Entrekin testified that, based on his interview with Handley, he was concerned Handley might harm himself.Entrekin said because of that Handley was under 24-hour guard in the medical unit of the jail. He said he believed Handley needed to be cared for.Entrekin testified it was not a requirement that one person have sufficient property to make the total bond and any number of people could join to make the total bond.Handley’s wife, Sandra, testified that the value of their home and the clinic was not enough to cover the $100,000 bond and said the property of one friend who had offered to help would also not be enough to cover the bond.She testified that the family’s plan, after Handley was released, was to meet with him and let him know he is loved and supported and place him in a treatment program. “He will be taken somewhere today,” she said at the hearing. She said she had talked to two treatment facilities about taking her husband.She surrendered Handley’s passport, which has expired, at the hearing.Cunningham said after the hearing that “something happened out of the ordinary at the clinic for Jerry Handley” and what that still was is unknown. That “something” caused Handley to act as he did.He said Handley is entitled to a “presumption of innocence, and we don’t need to have Etowah County turn into a lynch mob.” Cunningham said everyone who offered to help with the bond did not have enough property to satisfy the bond.Entrekin testified at the hearing that he had been contacted by about 25 people who offered to help with Handley’s bond. He said there would be sufficient property value for a property bond to be approved.District Attorney Jimmie Harp said after the hearing his concern was that Handley might harm himself. He said Handley needed to be evaluated by a mental health professional to determine if he was stable enough to go home.Harp said during the interview with law enforcement officials that Handley exhibited “uncontrollable sobbing, remorse and depression.” He said law enforcement officials felt Handley needed medical attention.Harp said the case is “heart-wrenching.” Russell said in his ruling that if Handley was released on bond he was to be taken by a sheriff’s deputy to a residential mental health facility and would not be allowed to have a gun. Before traveling out of the state, Handley is to have the written approval of the court and is to advise his attorney, the circuit clerk and district attorney of his residence, phone number and mailing address while on bond, Russell said.Handley told investigators he came up with the idea that day and did not plan to shoot himself, but the fire got out of hand quicker than he expected, Entrekin said.“He didn’t intend for it to get the animals,” Entrekin said.Handley used his own 9 mm Glock to shoot himself to explain why he was still in the building. Entrekin, deputy Colt Gregory and Hokes Bluff police officer Tyler Roe went in the burning clinic and found Handley in a hallway about 20 feet from the back door. The officers pulled him to safety. A short time later, he was flown by Lifesaver helicopter to University Hospital in Birmingham. With flesh wounds to his left wrist and ankle, he was released the next day.“From the very first night, we knew something wasn’t right,” Entrekin said this week at a press conference announcing the arrest. “The evidence just didn’t fit.”Handley had provided a detailed description of at least one burglar he said he confronted. That description — a man in his mid-30s with shoulder-length, greasy brown hair, about 6 feet tall and about 250 pounds with a distinctive tattoo on the man’s right bicep — prompted dozens of tips to investigators.---Times Staff Writer Lisa Rogers contributed to this article.

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